As described by Patrick Radden Keefe in his bestselling page-turner Empire of Pain, Richard Sackler—scion of the mega-wealthy drug manufacturing and marketing family and former president of Purdue Pharma, the company whose well-oiled racket of opioid over-prescription has claimed some half a million lives and counting in America alone—is “smart, and quirky.” He is “stocky, with a wide forehead, a straight nose, a husky voice, and a goofy grin.”
As played by Matthew Broderick in the new Netflix miniseries Painkiller, Richard Sackler is almost too goofy. His icy, affectless aspect conceals a tangle of quirks. He argues with the ghost of his dead uncle (Purdue patriarch Arthur M. Sackler, who revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry by marketing prescription drugs directly to physicians), dances dorkily with an anthropomorphic human-scaled oxycontin tablet, wars with a smoke detector that beeps with Poe-ish incessancy, and, of course, loves his dog. As played by Michael Stuhlbarg in Hulu’s 2021 miniseries Dopesick, Sackler is altogether more sinister. He is enigmatic, even cipher-ish, rubbing his clammy mitts together maliciously like Mr. Burns. His mouth occasionally twists at the edges, producing a Grinchy smirk.
Read Full Article »